


we stand together

by proud basic catgirl (de_scientia)



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/M, Miqo'te Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Missing Scene, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:41:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25360303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/de_scientia/pseuds/proud%20basic%20catgirl
Summary: This is the first time he has allowed his people to see his face, she realizes. And whether he believes it to not be a nice face or whether he feels some sense of vulnerability in that—a loss of mystery and authority, perhaps—she will not judge; she understands this is a change, and that changes can be frightening, especially when they upend a ninety-year status quo.But not all frightening changes are bad, and she wagers that might be true at twenty-nine or one hundred and twenty-nine.
Relationships: G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch/Warrior of Light
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	we stand together

**Author's Note:**

> I became obsessed with why G'raha stops during the credits scene and what she says to him and the soft smile on his face after that (it's!! so soft!!), so I decided this is what happens. this is the shortest thing I have ever written lmao but I guess it counts as a ficlet so here you go, ao3.

The Exarch’s resolve falters as they walk back into the city and are received joyously with a hero’s welcome. He falls a step behind her, then two, then halts entirely. When Z’seira turns to see what has befallen he who should be more eager to return than any of them, all she sees is his bowed head and some unknown torment coursing its way through his mind—emotions which were never so exposed beneath his hood.

This is the first time he has allowed his people to see his face, she realizes. And whether he believes it to not be a nice face or whether he feels some sense of vulnerability in that—a loss of mystery and authority, perhaps—she will not judge; she understands this is a change, and that changes can be frightening, especially when they upend a ninety-year status quo.

Or so she can only imagine. That’s thricefold all the time she has ever known.

But not all frightening changes are bad, and she wagers that might be true at twenty-nine or one hundred and twenty-nine. 

“Hold your head high, G’raha.” Z’seira smiles warmly, perhaps even mischievously, as she takes the significant liberty of slipping her battle-weary hand into his in front of the gods and everyone and gives it a supportive squeeze. “We stand together.”

The invocation of his tribal name and the sudden leap in heretofore unexplored familiarity strike him in exactly the way she hoped for, with an involuntary twitch of his ears and a fierce glittering in his bright ruby eyes that betray he is still concealing far more than his tight smile belies; behind it, he is close to bursting, his soul about ready to leave his body for the simple joy of an intimate gesture. He squeezes back, and doesn’t let go. His chin is the highest it has ever been.

So it becomes that the history books tell of the Warrior of Darkness and the Crystal Exarch returning to the Crystarium hand in hand—for it was never the story of one hero, but of two, reaching through time and space to stand together.


End file.
